Omicron runs around the world, Vienna offers 500 euros for the booster
Omicron does not stop and spreads throughout the world where, from France to India, the new variant continues to make the infections spurt. And all the states are trying to speed up the vaccine race and above all.
Austria, to break down the wall of skepticism that still remains in a part of the population, could soon resort to the most classic of weapons to solicit the booster: pay 500 euros, in the form of a bonus expense, to those who will go to do it . The proposal was put forward by the Social Democrats and the government of Oevp and Verdi said it was ready to talk about it. “This is a positive sign,” Chancellor Karl Nehammer explained.
At the moment, however, for almost all experts, the third dose is the most effective antidote to the new variant that is running in every corner of the world. France for the first time in two days has not broken the record of cases again, stopping at 206 thousand new positives, two thousand in less than 24 hours ago. But hospitalizations are growing exponentially: 18,000, a share that the country had not reached since last May.
Great Britain, where infections now travel on 180,000 newspapers, is ready to set up temporary field hospitals to cope with the growing need for beds. Authorities have already identified where to build, starting this week, the new facilities at the sites of eight city hospitals including London, Bristol and Leeds.
Germany, which classified Italy as a high-risk country, recorded a dramatic escalation of deaths: 383 in the last 24 hours. And Berlin prepares for the worst for January, as Omicron currently accounts for only 17.7% of COVID cases. Ireland, too, with 16,428 new cases witnesses a new, sad record since the start of the COVID era.
The new variant doesn’t just run in Europe. In India it now accounts for half of the cases detected and the country records a surge of new positives: over 13,000 in the last 24 hours, with 268 deaths. Absolute record since the beginning of the pandemic also in Argentina, which breaks through the ceiling of 40,000 new cases per day.
In New York the new positives are 67,000 and due to the thousands of people in isolation, the Big Apple subway has suffered stops and slowdowns on several runs. Russia, with 87,527 deaths, undermines Brazil, becoming the second country in the world after the United States for the number of deaths due to the coronavirus. Turkey, with over 36,000 positives in the last 24 hours, is returning to levels of contagion that have not been seen since last April.
Faced with the advance of Omicron, several countries are running for cover by limiting the celebrations for the new year as much as possible. But very few EU countries have put in place labels that recall the lockdown of the first waves. The danger of a very harmful relapse of the economy is holding back Western governments which are pushing instead on the race for the booster and, in an increasing number, the quarantine period.
After the USA, Great Britain and Spain, Portugal also cuts the isolation for the positives from ten to seven days but as long as they are asymptomatic.
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